The films of life in Mayo made by an amateur PJ Gilmore help us understand change in our society.
PJ Gilmore purchased a 16mm film camera in the 1950s. For a number of years he recorded life and events in the west of Ireland and would showed these films in towns and villages. The people who might been caught by the amateur filmamker would come along to a screening in the hope of seeing themselves on the big screen.
In 1984 RTÉ producer Peter Feeney with a script by Breandán Ó hEithir used the films of PJ Gilmore to show how life in Ireland had been for the majority of people but also how society was changing. The effort put in by PJ Gilmore to create a visual record of how people worked made it possible in the era of television to show changes in Irish society. '
The Flight from the Snipe Grass' uses the films shot in the 1950s to examine life in Ireland through religion, sport, work and cultural events.
This section of the programmes looks at the demise of the once so popular Castlebar Feis, emigration, and the emergence of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann.
The films of PJ Gilmore give a unique glimpse of Ireland in the west of Ireland in the fifties. The seeds of change must have also been there but they were not visible.
'The Flight from the Snipe Grass' was broadcast 18 March 1984.
The producer is Peter Feeney. Script and narration by Breandán Ó hEithir
